Little House series: book vs reality

[HOTW]

Did anyone else watch, Pioneer Quest - a Canadian frontier reality show? Two couples built up a homestead and had to survive in the Manitoba frontier for a year. They couples ended up not really liking each other by the year's end. I really enjoyed that show. I also was a big fan of 1900 House, Manor House and a BBC reality show about WW2 Evacuees.

I have hjeard of it but there are no episodes online and the one man from the series seems to have the serial rights and he wants a lot of money for the series! I have jeard it was a phenominal series and showed all the dangers of living in the time period from th eone Man's illness to the loss of the badly burned sow!

[Witsec7]

There's one called "The High Girders" by John Preeble that I want, but I can't find a copy this side of the Atlantic. Going to have to buy it online when I have some cash.

Online, though, there is a good sites [link=http://taybridgedisaster.co.uk/]here[/link]--check the bibliography. You can also access a PDF of the official report [link=http://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/docsummary.php?docID=107]here[/link] and a collection of the forensic pictures taken for the inquiry [link=[/link]

That Preeble is a bit spendy.

TY for the links.

[Scone]

This thread makes me so happy.

I adored Little House as a kid, and in fact everything else to do with the period (Does anyone remember the Sadie Rose books? I adored those but thinking about it now they are a great big ball of wtf that I should absolutely dig out again). "Pioneers" was my favourite game growing up and I spent most of my playtime bullying my sisters into helping me turn the trampoline into a wagon or lugging buckets of water to make grass stews. I even tried to light fires in the backyard a few times to cook said stews over. Good thing I was mostly trying to light green twigs and things and never actually got anything to burn. My tenth birthday party was Little House themed too, everyone had to dress up and all the party food came from the Little House cookbook and all the games and everything were taken from the books too. I was never much a fan of the tv series though and only ever saw bits of the earlier seasons.

Also speaking of period reenactment shows, there was a New Zealand version of Colonial House I quite enjoyed. That was was awesome for me because it was about the settlement of Christchurch (near where I grew up) and the town featured in the show is a historical park I've spent a lot of time at and I knew several of the "townspeople" and was one of them for a while, though I wasn't on the show. It was a pretty cool thing to be so close to though.

[RandomTrivia]

I do remember watching Frontier House (memorable for one of the teenage girls squatting in the field to take a pee on camera, the couple that subsequently divorced and the big flap over the still) and 1900 House. Both were very interesting.

I thought 1900 House and Manor House were the best. Frontier and (especially) Texas Ranch House got a little too much of the "editing drama" for my taste. Actually, most of the Houses that were American-origin (as I recall) weren't as realistic as the British shows; Colonial House also had some rebels who didn't want to give up their modern comforts. The 1940s House seems to have avoided that problem, and our library has the DVDs, so I'll have to check that one out.

Wikipedia has some other British shows listed as similar to Manor House (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_1900_House#Similar_Series); I wish PBS would show them: Coal House, Victorian Farm, even the Australian Outback House sound interesting. Some of them are on DVD, but looks like mostly Region 2 releases.

[FaustianSlip]

I agree that 1900 House and Manor House are the best (though for some reason, 1900 House is nearly impossible to find on DVD these days). 1940s House is excellent, as well. I would definitely recommend checking them out. I hadn't heard of the others; I'll have to see if I can find them. I do recall seeing a show called The Trench, I think, that recreated one of the local infantry units common in Britain in WWI, where friends and men from the same community would all enlist as a group and fight together. It was very well done; they sent this recreated unit out to France and had them living in a recreated trench. Periodically, they'd go out on "missions" and someone would be "killed," taken off the show, never to be heard from again. I've never been able to find it on DVD, which is a shame, because it was really fascinating.

[luckystone]

I loved 1900 House. 1940s was less exciting (I didn't think it was long enough ago to be really interesting) and I saw a couple of others pioneer/frontier related and they were far too much drama and had been edited to be more typical conflict reality shows rather than educational which the first ones were. I have a book of 1900 House which is a really interesting read as it explains in detail all the items they used in the house, where they were sourced from etc. and how the restoration process went ahead.

[FaustianSlip]

My favorite part of 1940s House was the "war council" sitting at the Churchill War Rooms saying things like, "They've got it way too easy! Now it's time to tighten the screws!" "Yeah! Let's fine them for violating the blackout!"

The husband in the family was kind of an ass, I thought; his wife was working her fingers to the bone while he was off at work, and he wouldn't help her out with the dishes, going, "Well, that's women's work." Ugh.

[Artemis]

Slightly OT but for all those who mentioned the Tay Bridge disaster, I cannot resist giving you this link :

http://www.taynet.co.uk/users/mcgon/disaster.htm

to the - interesting - poem about it by William McGonagall, the world's worst poet.

Read it and weep :)

That Sylvia stuff was scary - and that was never in the books. I bought a DVD set of LHOTP but haven't watched it yet because I don't want to spoil my recollection of the books. Also, my last memories of seeing odd episodes are inextricably linked with being in a London hospital AIDS ward dayroom, with a friend who was dying. He loved LHOTP, and watched it again, and again and again.

Sola and freejoytoo, we should so have a UK FJcon. (and the rest of you!)

[DarkAnts]

Here is the link for the first part of the 1900 house on YT.

My grandma would not talk about her pioneer times. She was LDS so I think that she might have been protecting me from what happened to her. I did love to read LHOTP books along with serious about LDS girls at the time. They left out important info about why people did not like the LDS church. I was not raised mormon but it is part of my family so I have done research about the times.

I think the biggest problem with Carrie on LHOTP tv series is that she was played by a set of twins. One twin had some developmental delays while the other did not.

[formergothardite]

I found another good one!

That is just an amazing amount of snow. :shock: No wonder the trains couldn't get through.

[Glass Cowcatcher]

Slightly OT but for all those who mentioned the Tay Bridge disaster, I cannot resist giving you this link :

http://www.taynet.co.uk/users/mcgon/disaster.htm

to the - interesting - poem about it by William McGonagall, the world's worst poet.

Read it and weep :)

McGonagall convinced me that Vogons are real.

[Wolfie]

I thought 1900 House and Manor House were the best. Frontier and (especially) Texas Ranch House got a little too much of the "editing drama" for my taste. Actually, most of the Houses that were American-origin (as I recall) weren't as realistic as the British shows; Colonial House also had some rebels who didn't want to give up their modern comforts. The 1940s House seems to have avoided that problem, and our library has the DVDs, so I'll have to check that one out.

Wikipedia has some other British shows listed as similar to Manor House (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_1900_House#Similar_Series); I wish PBS would show them: Coal House, Victorian Farm, even the Australian Outback House sound interesting. Some of them are on DVD, but looks like mostly Region 2 releases.

I really want to see Victorian Farm, but as you mentioned, it hasn't been released here.

[freejoytoo]

I reread The Long Winter today. I've always wondered what Ma and the girls did when they got their period, though I assume they may have stopped menstruating due to the dramatic drop in their diet. Maybe Laura wouldn't have had that to deal with as she was thirteen and menarche was later then?

[formergothardite]

I reread The Long Winter today. I've always wondered what Ma and the girls did when they got their period, though I assume they may have stopped menstruating due to the dramatic drop in their diet. Maybe Laura wouldn't have had that to deal with as she was thirteen and menarche was later then?

So have I. But they were starving, so it might be that it just stopped.

[rosamundi]

Little House in the Big Woods is here: http://www.gutenberg.ca/ebooks/wilder-w ... -01-h.html

I haven't found LHotPrairie online yet, but will check again when I'm not on the iPod.

Apparently the copyrights are disputed which may be why they're not all in public domain. Or maybe only the first is old enough.

they are all, apart from the last one, which was published in the 1970's, out of copyright in Canada, and can be downloaded here in various formats: http://www.mobileread.com/forums/ebooks.php?do=getall&order=asc&sort=ebook&ltr=W&page=36

[Edited. Copywrite instead of copyright drives me bananas]

[Rosa]

There was an awesome Canadian one called Quest for the Bay, too.

I liked Pioneer House a lot, though. I thought it was really interesting that all the kids & dads were sad to leave and most of the women were just, THANK GOD.

[Queen of Serpents]

Does anyone know when and where the next Laurapalooza will be? We should definitely have an FJ meet up.

[freejoytoo]

So have I. But they were starving, so it might be that it just stopped.

I expect they stopped eventually but I wonder what they did first. It must have sucked to have your period back then in one of those heavy dresses. I remember an episode on The 1900 House about that.

[Wolfie]

I expect they stopped eventually but I wonder what they did first. It must have sucked to have your period back then in one of those heavy dresses. I remember an episode on The 1900 House about that.

Rags and belts. And can you imagine how icky it would get without the facilities we have to bathe now? I think that there may be an example in the Workwoman's Guide, but I don't have my copy of it near, and it is hard to go through online to find it specifically.

And as we've mentioned about nutrition before, generally their periods were lighter because of it- and without reliable BC they had less periods anyway.

[freejoytoo]

I'm so glad I was born a hundred years after these books!

Going back to the libetarian theme, I really noticed it in The Long Winter - at the start of the book Laura notices that the muskrats have built their houses thicker and Pa says it's because God has warned them it will be a hard winter. When she asks why God hasn't warned them Pa says it's because they're human, have to use their brains and if someone builds a poorly-made house then it's his problem becaus he's free and independent, no one else's.

In regards to the gap with having children, I think I read somewhere that there was an issue in the Ingalls family regarding male children. Maybe Ma miscarried male foetuses, or miscarried in general.

Oh, and thanks everyone for the links!

[Arete]

I'm not sure Pa's words are libertarian per se as we understand it now. I imagine thought proccesses like that were not uncommon in the subset of people willing to live on the American frontier. It's self selecting for people who are both more adventurous and self reliant than the norm. Sure there was government, towns, and an army presence, but the Dakotas of the 1870s-80s are not the equivalent of NY or London of the 1870s and 80s.

[Conuly]

I'm not sure Pa's words are libertarian per se as we understand it now. I imagine thought proccesses like that were not uncommon in the subset of people willing to live on the American frontier. It's self selecting for people who are both more adventurous and self reliant than the norm. Sure there was government, towns, and an army presence, but the Dakotas of the 1870s-80s are not the equivalent of NY or London of the 1870s and 80s.

Except we know that the libertarian Rose was hugely influential in how the books were written. I can't accurately remember that much dialog from my own life, I'd have to make a lot of it up if I wanted to write *my* memoirs of my childhood. So if Laura had the gist of what her father said (humans have to use their brains), it's entirely possible her daughter added the libertarian spin (and if you're too stupid to build a good home, it's your own silly fault).

[freejoytoo]

That was my interpretation. I doubt Laura could remember many specific conversations.

Can someone please explain that joke about the butter in the Long Winter about some guy using it to throw at his wife? That has always confused me.

[Arete]

Except we know that the libertarian Rose was hugely influential in how the books were written. I can't accurately remember that much dialog from my own life, I'd have to make a lot of it up if I wanted to write *my* memoirs of my childhood. So if Laura had the gist of what her father said (humans have to use their brains), it's entirely possible her daughter added the libertarian spin (and if you're too stupid to build a good home, it's your own silly fault).

She definitely influenced the books. It's just not outrageous to believe these people (who were drawn to frontier living) valued their independence a lot more than people settled in cities. They were a lot less likely to think government could be counted on more than their own smarts.

[Glass Cowcatcher]

The house thing really just seemed like common sense for someone in their situation.